Ulster Team Talk Thread III: Les Miserables SEE MOD WARNING POST #1924 + #2755

I go to all that trouble, only to find that it's the last post on a closed thread.

So being a bit bored in the Christmas aftermath, I made the following table. It's complete as far as selections go, but not so complete with injury situations. Anything left blank can be filled in later if the information is to hand. The positions are loosely based on where they've started, I haven't differentiated between TH and LH props for example and if a player is a Wing/FB, I've lsited them as a wing in the understanding that they can switch.

S = Start, B = Bench, U = Unavailable, (a) = Academy player.
Bold = Home, Red = Loss, Green = Draw.

Player|Pos|01/09|09/09|15/09|22/09|30/09|06/10|13/10|22/10|28/10|04/11|24/11|01/12|10/12|15/12|23/12|01/01
Opp||Che|Ben|Sca|Dra|Zeb|Con|Was|LaR|Lei|Kin|Ben|Dra|Har|Har|Con|Mun
Ah You|P|B|B|B|S|S|B|B|B|S|U|U|U|U|U|U|S
Andrew|H|B|B|B|B|S|B|B|||S|S|S|B|B|S|U
Best|H|U|U|U|U|U|U|U|B|S|U|U|B|U|U|S|U
Black|P|B|S|||S||B|S|S|B|S|B|S|S||B
Bowe|W|S|S|B|S||S|B|S|S|B|S|S|S|U|U|U
Browne|L||B|||S|||||||||||
Busby|W||||||||||||||||
Cairns|SH|||||||||S|||||||
Cave|C|B|||S|S|||S||S|B||||S|S
Coetzee|No. 8|S|U|U|U|U|U|U|U|U|U|U|U|U|U|U|U
Cooney|SH|S|S|S||S|S|S|B||S|S|B|S|S|S|S
Dalton (a)|L|||||||||||B|B|U|U|U|U
Deysel|F|S|S|||S|S|S||S|||||||S
Diack|L|S|S|B|S||B|S|B|B|B|U|U|U|U|S|B
Gilroy|W|U|U|U|U|U|U|U|U|U|S|S|S|S|S|S|S
Hall (a)|F|||||||||||S|||||
Henderson|L||||B|S|S|S|S|S|U|U||S|S|S|U
Henry|F|S|B|S|S||S||S|S|S||B|B|S|U|U
Herbst|P|S|S|S|B|B|S|S|S||S|||S|S|S|B
Herring|H|S|S|S|S||S|S|S|B||B||S|S||S
Herron|OH||||B||||||||||||
Jackson|OH|U|U|U|U|U|U|U|U|U|U|U|U|U|U|U|U
Jones (a)|F|||||||||||B|S|||S|S
Kane|P|||||||||B|B|S|S|B|B|B|
Leali'fano|OH|S|S|S||S|S|S|S|S|S|S|S|S|S||S
Ludik|W|S|S|S||S|B|S||B|S|S|S|B|S|S|U
Lyttle|C||||B|B||||||||||B|S
Luke Marshall|C||B|S||S|S|S|B|S|U|U|U|U|U|U|U
The other Marshall|SH|||B|S||B|B|S|||B|S|B|B|B|B
McBurney|H|||||B|||||B|||||S|B
McCall|P|S||S|S||S|S|U|U|U|U|U|U|U|U|S
McCloskey|C|S|S|S|S||S|S|S|S|U|U|S|S|S||S
McPhillips|OH|||||||||||||||B|B
Nelson|W|B|B|B|S|B|B|B||B|B|S|B|B|B|S|
O'Connor|L|S||S|S||S||S|S|S|S|S|S|S||S
O'Hagan|P||||||||||||||||
Olding|C|U|U|U|U|U|U|U|U|U|U|U|U|U|U|U|U
Owens|W||||||||||||||||
Patterson|C||||||||||||||||
Payne|FB|U|U|U|U|U|U|U|U|U|U|U|U|U|U|U|U
Piutau|FB|S|||S|S|S|S|S|S|S|S|S|S|S||S
Rea|L|B|S|S|B|S||B|B||S|||B|B|B|B
Reidy|F|B|S|S||S|B|S|S|S|S||S|S|B|S|U
Ross|F|||B|S|||B|||B|S||||S|
Shanahan|SH|B|B||B|B|||||||||||
Simpson|P|U|U|U|U|U|U|U|U|U|U|U|U|U|U|U|U
Stewart (a)|SH|||||||||B|B||||||
Stockdale|W||S|S|S||S|S|B|S|U|U||S|S|S|U
Timoney (a)|No. 8||||S|B||||||S|S|S|S||S
Treadwell|L||S|S||B|S|S|S|B|S|S|S|S|S||S
Trimble|W|S|S|S||S|||S||S|B|B||B|S|B
Van der Merwe|P|||||||||||B|S|||B|
Warwick|P||B|B|B|B|B||B|B|S|B|B|B|B|S|


There are some players who haven't started a game all season and I have no idea why. I'm sure it's injury related but there's only so much searching I can do before I bcome bored silly.


E&OE

$ausage$ wrote: »

Its a joke, an embarrassment. Why are we celebrating a win against 14 Munster men.

I am really losing the will to live when we have Motm and best players are Leinster men!

So much better when it was Saffers.

molloyjh wrote: »

Cooney is putting himself in the frame for a squad call up. Nothing more. What he does in camp will define whether he makes match day squads.

The world class comment was tongue in cheek. It was a reflection of the fact he's playing so well behind a pack that was taken the cleaners for large parts of tonight and in previous games. Put him behind a dominant pack and it would be interesting to see how he goes.

How would he have done behind the 2012/2013 Ulster pack? Which coincidentally (or not) was probably when Ruan was at his very very best for Ulster...

Zzippy wrote: »

Yes, we know how it works. But if he performs in camp the way he's playing for Ulster this season, the point stands. He has goal kicking advantage over Marmion and McGrath too. Great to see him start to realise his potential and a bit of competition at scrumhalf.

Probably the healthiest we've been at scrumhalf for a while isnt it? Murray starting and Marmion/McGrath/potentially Cooney battling it out for 2nd string.

Big improvement on the previous backups of well aged Reddan/Boss .

“Les Kissing, More talking”

Les Kisserables

$ausage$ wrote: »

Hang on is everyone forgetting the shocker Cooney had before he scored the try? He was making poor choices at the base and at one point passed to Cave who was clearly running a dummy line then pretty much helped shift the ball direct to touch. Yes he is the best we have but he was not MotM last night. Gilroy or Cave was.
As for the second half performance, I can not think of one point even when down to 14 for the yellow we look like winning. It was only when they had 13 after the red that they started to pick it up.
You know its bad when the crowd are ironically cheering when you win one of your own lineouts!

Was the wind not a factor in Ravenhill like it was in the RDS? I know it died down a bit, but it was still making lineout throws a bit of a lottery. Munster overthrew a couple as well iirc.

$ausage$ wrote: »

No,
The wind was not the reason, poor timing, being read to easy not going shorter sooner and over throws were the issues.

Well according to the stats it was honours even on that score. Both teams lost two.

Edit: I meant to ask earlier, but was Ludik not due to start at 13?

$ausage$ wrote: »

I can not think of one point even when down to 14 for the yellow we look like winning. It was only when they had 13 after the red !

In fairness they were only down to 14 for about 3 minutes before Arnold was sent off, during which time Cave scored a try.

bilston wrote: »

I think Ludik was ill. Cave should have been starting anyway.

Seems to have a point to prove alright. Long may it continue. That was a great performance from him yesterday.

stellenbosch wrote: »

Jones was excellent and was much better than the much vaunted Deysel

To be fair to Deysel, it was his first start after a long lay off.

Deleted User wrote: »

Ulster Team Talk Thread III: A,Les-gory of the Cave
Ulster Team Talk Thread III: The Best is yet to Callum
Ulster Team Talk Thread III: Jonno and the Hendersons
Ulster Team Talk Thread III: Dibs on Gibbs
Ulster Team Talk Thread III: If you poach Ross Byrne I'll be piiiisssed
Ulster Team Talk Thread III: That escalated quickly
Ulster Team Talk Thread III: Rodney you plonker
Ulster Team Talk Thread III: Friends don't let friends double team

Nah. Ulster Team Talk Thread III: The Mexicans are over the wall

Something's gotta Gibbe

The Final Ulster Team Talk Thread

Neil3030 wrote: »

Les Kisserables

Les Miserables is probably as apt as you need.

For a team that has a working squad down in the twenties and have still managed to win more games in the league than Munster and have a realistic chance of getting out of their CC pool, you'd think they were dragging around the bottom of the league with nothing to play for by the sound of things around here. :rolleyes:

bilston wrote: »

This place is tame compared to other places.

True. But echo chambers do tend to be a lot louder than normal environments.

jacothelad wrote: »

The problems are many. Starting with idiotic team selection. No chance of players getting the opportunity to develop understandings with regular partners. Never play the same centres together for example. Or playing Bowe at 13 when Cave and Ludik are available. Or playing back row players in the second row while playing second rows in the back row. Or selecting Cairns v. Leinster, he has a good game and then gets turfed off the airport bus by Kiss and hasn'r been seen again. Playing Beagle when Shanahan, Cairns or Ethel the Tea lady are better. Nelson at 10 is a sad reflection on the squad.

I took the time to produce that table for a reason. I was kind of hoping that some of you would help develop it a bit more, but as far as I can see, Ludik played pretty much every game bar a few and a couple of subs. Cave is a mystery nobody can answer, but that may be over now. But the overarching view that table provides is of a very thin squad that is dictating match-day selections by injury rather than design.

jacothelad wrote: »

Then there are the actual performances over the last 2 years since Kiss took over.
So far this season in 12 league games Ulster have conceded 37 tries.
In 22 games last season the conceded 47. FORTY SEVEN. FFS This season it could be closer to 70.
In 15 / 16 season Ulster conceded only 29 in 22 games, only bettered by Leinster on 27.
In 14 / 15 it was 34.
In 13 / 14 it was 26. So Ulster had a great defensive record before the 'DEFENCE COACH' took over. Now it's a joke.

Them there are the teams Ulster have actually played. Mostly the bottom feeders who have scored at will. Losing to Zebre ffs.

Teams are conceding more tries now because of the changes to the laws. Which was the idea, I believe. 37 is not good, but Ulster's pack is just not good enough. Three pack related tries yesterday and only four missed tackles tells the story really.

Zebre defeat was horrible alright. After four straight wins, it was hard to take. And not exactly a seconds squad either. A lot of senior players on the pitch who should have done a lot better. Perhaps an attitude problem? Lads thinking the game was won before they took the field? Dragons away seemed to be the same kind of malaise. :mad:

jacothelad wrote: »

The team has shown individual skill at times but the cohesive teamwork of a bunch of hermits. Most of the players are those who have performed really well before Kiss arrived so why are they playing like girl guides now?

O.K. there are significant players missing all or most of the season. Coetzee, Best, Payne, Jackson, Olding, Luke Marshall, Henry, Browne, Deysel, V.D. Merwe etc plus the ageing lags of Trimble and Bowe all makes for a perfect storm of pig slurry when you factor in the jokeshop coach input.

I'm inclined to the view that some of the senior players are not giving it the full effort in the lesser matches and it shows. It seems that they can be up for the big ones and the home matches, but not arsed when it's some bottom feeder away. Not sure you can point the finger wholly at the coaches there. The younger guys look eager and enthused and willing to give 100% for the full 80. Stockdale plays with a smile on his face as does Lyttle etc.

But it's hard to kick arses when there are no options threatening from behind. A bit of depth may change attitudes.

LOST ALL FOLK KISS